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I have a mile long 5mph no wake zone to go through to get to the slip. I have seen people pulled over before but they were always causing more than a little wake or obviously going too fast in a dinghy. In my Sig I just make sure the throttles are no more than just above idle (about 1,000 rpm) and have never had an issue. With all that said it still comes down to the marine cop and if he wants to be reasonable or not....................

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Sounds like a bored cop. Probably using it as an excuse to see if he can spot any additional violation once he makes contact. Like the old license plate light being out.

Bored Cop indeed. They do the same thing on the C&D canal, sitting stationary with their hand held in a 2.5 knot current. Try to explain that it's speed over the water and not speed over the ground and let me know how you make out. A single dual prop at idle hits 7 knots easily in those conditions and if you are drifting, you lose steerage. Just a reason to look further. The Coasties stationed here tell me there is a big problem with drugs moving up and down the bay, especially at night.Meth labs hidden in the woods. I thought this was Maryland, not Miami.

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40 years ago in N J, we had mara plants & poppies growing in farm lands.

Electronics has just allowed local things & information to go world wide.

If you get picky & want to go to court ? Argue the speed is to PREVENT WAKE DAMAGE to docked boats & water edge erosion.

If I ran into a drugged out police I would say . Key is turned off. Write me up with your speed & note on the ticket the key is off. Be ready for a lie detector test in court with my lawyer & friends taking you apart. There was 1 crew That got too pushy. We took turns talking to the district commander. He was silent for 30 ? seconds. Then said it was almost funny that some staff were badgering boaters with no wake tickets in river & high wind current areas. The nasties stopped.

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When I was in Toronto 2 years ago, I got pulled over. I figured it was due to the only boater flying the US flag. He said I'm going to fast as I came through the channel between the airport and the mainland. I was going well above idle. Before entering the channel, I looked for buoy markers with a speed limit. Back and forth I looked and saw none. I watched the electronic information board for a speed limit and didn't see anything there [southern side of airport]. I told the officer I looked for a speed limit and saw nothing. He said there was. I didn't argue.

Last year, I kept the speed down while going through the channel. Again no speed limit markers. But as I came around the north side of the airport where the other electronic info board is, I watched it. And there is was scrolling along......5 knots!

While looking at my photos from two years ago, while watching a Dash Q400 land from my boat, I snapped a picture and low and behold, it captures the southern info board with the speed limit on it. It gave me a good laugh. The officer was right after all. Or they updated it.

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Actually, same guy pulled me over the next day..."Sir, your boat does not have an adequately displayed name".

Well, that's because it doesn't have a name stencilled on it at all!

I know you all have to have a registration number on display but we don't have that here and in most parts of the country you don't need to have a name displayed either. Ok, I admit that's not ideal but it is what it is. And apparently on this lake you need to have a name...i.e. visitors get lost!

-WS

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Before entering the channel, I looked for buoy markers with a speed limit. Back and forth I looked and saw none. I watched the electronic information board for a speed limit and didn't see anything there [southern side of airport]. I told the officer I looked for a speed limit and saw nothing. He said there was. I didn't argue.

Last year, I kept the speed down while going through the channel. Again no speed limit markers. But as I came around the north side of the airport where the other electronic info board is, I watched it. And there is was scrolling along......5 knots!

This can be tricky without local knowledge ...

On Great Lakes in Canada, and everywhere else, signage cannot be posted in every inlet or on ever island that leads to the restricted zone, same goes for many harbors. For established limits and restrictions one needs to consult the charts, for temporary rules and changes one needs to check the NTMs.

Example of a speed limit that applies to the entire length of a channel, some 30-40 miles of it in the case pictured below. There are no nav aids displaying that limit anywhere on land or on water that I am aware of.

The problem with electronic charts is, the annotations like limits and restrictions do not show in all zoom levels, and often they show in different places on a chart when panning. One just needs to study the charts and plan the route before going.